INEOS axes 20% of workforce in Hull blaming energy costs, dirt-cheap Chinese imports

Dirt-cheap carbon-heavy imports from China, produced using coal and emitting up to eight times more CO₂ than INEOS’s UK operations, are now flooding the market

Chemicals giant Ineos Group is cutting 60 jobs — about 20% of the workforce — at a plant in Hull, England due to high energy costs and cheap imports from China. The Acetyls plant makes ingredients for pharmaceuticals, adhesives and the food industry.

Dirt-cheap carbon-heavy imports from China, produced using coal and emitting up to eight times more CO₂ than INEOS’s UK operations, are now flooding the market. These Chinese products have been blocked from entering the US by effective tariffs but face no trade barriers in the UK or Europe.

INEOS is calling on the UK Government and European Commission to introduce urgent anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese and US importers to protect the chemicals sector. The company warns that unless firm action is taken, more sites will close and thousands more jobs will be lost, not only at Hull but across the UK and European chemical industry.

David Brooks, CEO of INEOS Acetyls, said: “This is a very difficult time for everyone at the Hull facility. We have a leading-edge, efficient and well-invested site and the team here is highly skilled, professional, and dedicated. Making the decision to cut 60 roles was not taken lightly. We have explored every possible alternative but in the face of sustained pressure from energy costs, combined with unfairly low-cost imports into the UK and Europe, we’ve been left with no other choice. Our priority now is to support those affected and protect the long-term future of the site.”

This is not an isolated issue. It is part of the same structural crisis that is hitting chemicals companies across the UK and EU.

INEOS recently invested £30 million at the Hull site to switch from natural gas to hydrogen, cutting emissions by 75%, the equivalent of taking 160,000 cars off the road. Despite this major step forward for industrial decarbonisation, the company now warns that without trade defence measures, (tariffs) progress will come at the cost of British jobs.

INEOS welcomes the UK Government’s recent U-turn on its decision to penalise the Hull site under the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) but structural problems remain unresolved.

“This is a textbook case of the UK and Europe sleepwalking into deindustrialisation. INEOS has invested heavily at Hull to cut CO₂, yet we’re being undercut by China and the US while left wide open by a complete absence of tariff protection. If governments don’t act now on energy, carbon and trade, we will keep losing factories, skills and jobs. And once these plants shut, they never come back.”

INEOS is the largest producer of acetic acid, acetic anhydride, and ethyl acetate in the UK and Europe. These chemicals are essential for everything from food preservation and pharmaceuticals, including aspirin and paracetamol, to diagnostic tests, adhesives, and industrial coatings. Without them, modern life doesn’t function.